The PASC19 Organizing Team is pleased to announce a keynote presentation on Microsoft Optics for the Cloud – A New Approach to Data Centre Technology by Scarlet Schwiderski-Grosche (Microsoft Research Cambridge, UK). We also would like to remind you of the early registration deadline approaching, and that applications for the student volunteers program close this Sunday!

PASC19 Keynote: Microsoft Optics for the Cloud – A New Approach to Data Centre Technology

New hardware technology such as rack-scale computers (RSCs) are redefining the landscape of data center computing today, achieving both higher bandwidth and lower latency. As a basic building block of a redesigned stack of hardware, OS, storage and network, such infrastructure is increasingly suitable for HPC workloads. However, most of today’s data center technology was designed or conceived in the era before the cloud existed. Many of the technologies represent compromises, encumbered by legacy thinking. We are exploring optical technologies across the three primary resources, networking, storage, and compute.
In this talk, we will outline the future challenges in the data center and discuss the limitations of current technology. We will take a holistic end-to-end view of the needs of the cloud and present our work on optical networking and storage.

About the presenter

Dr. Scarlet Schwiderski-Grosche is a Director at Microsoft Research Cambridge. She drives strategic research partnerships with academic institutions in EMEA, including the Swiss Joint Research Center with EPFL and ETH Zurich and the Inria Joint Center. Moreover, Scarlet leads academic outreach around optical storage and networking for Microsoft Optics for the Cloud. Scarlet has ten years’ experience driving collaborations with academia and industry around cutting-edge and highly interdisciplinary research projects and has managed a multitude of academic programs including the EMEA PhD Scholarship Programme and the EMEA PhD Summer Schools.

 

Last Call for the PASC19 Student Volunteer Program

There are still a few places available for the PASC19 Student Volunteer Program, which provides students with free conference registration.

If you are an undergraduate, master’s or doctoral student in computational science or HPC and you enjoy working in a dynamic and enthusiastic team, don’t miss the chance to experience the conference as a volunteer for PASC19. If you are selected as a volunteer for PASC19 you will receive complimentary conference registration. Applications close on Sunday, April 28.

Information on how to apply for this opportunity and some impressions from volunteers who participated in last year’s program are available at: https://pasc19.pasc-conference.org/about/student-volunteer-program/ .

Registration

PASC19 and ISC 2019 are fast approaching and in order to offer HPC veterans and junior enthusiasts the opportunity to combine these two major events in the European HPC ecosystem, the conferences have been scheduled back-to-back in June 2019.

Don’t miss the early registration deadline for participation in PASC19 on May 3, 2019, and register for the conference at your earliest convenience!

We look forward to welcoming you to ETH Zurich for three days of stimulating technical sessions and networking opportunities. The full program of the conference is available here.

Accommodation in Zurich

We also would like to bring to your attention that, due to the high demand of hotel rooms in the summer season in Zurich, we have made a room block for PASC19 participants. Information on this opportunity is available here. Please note that the room block will be released on May 10, 2019.

Further information on the conference is available at: https://pasc19.pasc-conference.org/